Listing Days
by Agyrophobic
Summary: A contribution to sasusakumonth 2014. May or may not update regularly. Day 3: where Sakura is afraid of snakes, and Sasuke takes advantage of it.
1. Surprise?

Title: Surprise?

Summary: Too short to have a proper summary.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Prompt: the smell of fresh paint

Rating: K

* * *

"I don't know why, but I think Sasuke-kun's been avoiding me lately," Sakura told Ino on their lunch date.

"Why do you think so?" Ino raised a brow at her.

"Because I don't see him as much anymore. And every time I asked if I could come over, he says no or he'll go to my place instead," Sakura furrowed her brows.

"And how long has this been going on?"

"A month, give or take a few days? I mean, what if he's hiding something? Or worse, he's hiding someone? And he's been secretly cheating on me behind my back!" Sakura gasped.

Ino sighed and rolled her eyes, knowing Sakura's just being her usual paranoid self.

"Hey, calm your forehead, forehead. I'm pretty sure whatever it is, Sasuke has a good explanation for it. Otherwise, he'd have me to explain to."

And that was enough of a reassurance Sakura needed from a friend.

xxx

It was close to 10pm that night, when Sakura heard a knock on the door.

Thinking it was probably a messenger from the Hokage, Sakura went to open to door.

"Sasuke-kun?" was who she found standing at her door.

"Sakura." Sasuke said in greeting.

"What are you doing here, so late at night?" Sakura tilted her head, questioning.

"Come with me."

And she did. She trailed beside him, with him leading, all the way to the Uchiha compound's main house.

The first thing that hit her, was how different it looked to her, compared with the last time she's been here. In a way, it looked much cleaner. _Homier, _she thought to herself.

Then, there was a light draft, and a waft of the smell of fresh paint hit her senses. Then she realized, "You renovated?"

"Aa."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Hn," and he tugged at her hand, indicating for her to follow.

They moved towards the back of the traditional house, where a sakura tree stood. It was spring, and the blossoms were in full bloom.

Sasuke lead her beneath the tree.

"Sakura, marry me."

* * *

A/N: Yay! My first ever contribution to SasuSaku Month. It's horribly short, and I probably ended it too abruptly. But I'm almost late for work and did this in 20 minutes, so bear with me please. Will try to do better pieces in the future!


	2. lemon slice

Title: lemon slice

Summary: _Sorry for telling you this late._

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Prompt: late

Rating: T

Warning(s): AU. Sasuke's slightly older than his batch in this story. Slight angst? Possible OOC, depending on how you see it.

* * *

The first time he noticed her, she was hardly worth noticing.

There she stood in front of the counter, loose pink shoulder length hair dressed in all her baggy hoodie's glory, pondering on what to order. He could see that the counter attendant on duty was probably internally screaming in agony for this girl to get on with her order so that he could get off his shift.

_Maybe I should relieve him of this torture, _he thought. _Well at least there's no line behind her._ It was midmorning, around ten, the crowd wasn't in at this time on a weekday.

"Miss, are you ready to order yet? I've given you plenty of options," Suigetsu, the kid on duty, gritted his teeth.

"Umm, but none of those you suggested had – "

_Oh, what the heck, he looks like he's about to get an aneurysm._

"Hey Suigetsu, get off your shift! I'll take over from here!" He called out from the back.

Slipping on an apron, he easily slid into position at the counter, bumping Suigetsu aside. "Now miss, I apologize for my employee's incompetence. How may I assist you?"

Sasuke was young, at a mere twenty one years of age, he had taken over his parents' coffee shop. Not that he had much of a choice, his parents had both passed away within months of each other. His father had passed away in a hit-and-run, while his mother died of cancer when he was months from being eighteen. His paternal grandparents were his guardians for the period of time before he turned into a legal adult, and help ran things in the shop while he graduated from high school. When he was of age, the first thing he did was taking over the shop by himself and had been running things since then.

"I-It's ok, I was wondering if your menu had any beverages with lemons in it?"

"As in the lemonade sort?"

"Not exactly, I'm sorry for being a bother but – "

"It's alright, if it's not in the menu, we'll make it anyway, we serve to please after all," Sasuke smirked.

The coffee shop in itself had a warm and welcoming environment. Added with it's location in the heart of town and near schools and colleges, business kept booming and attracted customers of all ages and professions, especially students from around the area. It was famed for being a local hangout joint.

"W-well, I just wanted drinks with a slice of lemon in it," the girl stuttered.

"I don't really think I get what you mean," Sasuke furrowed his brows.

"Umm, can you like, put a slice of lemon in a glass and pour coke in it? That sorta thing?" she blushed.

"Oh."

"…"

" Wait here a sec."

Sasuke headed to the fridge to grab a lemon, made a nice slice of it, added ice in a glass and placed the lemon slice in. Grabbing a canned coke from the shelf, he brought both the glass and the can to the counter before the girl.

Popping the can open, he poured the soda in the glass till it's about four fifths full and then dunked in a stirrer.

"Will this do?" Sasuke raised an amused eyebrow at the girl.

"Yeah, thanks," she smiled, her voice came like a whisper.

"Well no problem, drinks on the house today. Enjoy your day –"

"Sakura, I'm Sakura. And thanks, you too," her eyes were bright, took the glass and left to look for a seat in a corner.

Sasuke's eyes followed her till she sat down and took out a book. He didn't realize he was staring until Suigetsu tapped him on the shoulder, "Tell me, how did you get rid of her so fast." Suigetsu was a part-timer, a kid two years younger than Sasuke himself, but all in all, still a great friend.

"Hey, don't be rude, she's a customer."

"Uh-huh, a customer. Drinks on the house too," Suigetsu looked at him incredulously.

"Oh shut it. I don't see you doing your job properly."

"I did! She couldn't decide on what she wanted, you should've been here!" Suigetsu whined.

"Quit your whining, go study or something, don't you have exams in the afternoon later?"

"Oh shit I forgot! I'll be at the back then!" Suigetsu ran towards backroom.

Sasuke huffed a laugh and resumed his post at the counter, his eyes kept drifting to the peculiar girl in the corner who wanted a lemon slice in a glass of soda, until he lost sight of her when the lunch crowd came in.

Little did he know that that day, was the start of many lemon sliced beverages to come.

xxx

Sakura kept coming in daily, around the same time without fail. And always asking for a drink with an additional lemon slice, just never the classical lemonade or iced lemon tea.

"How about lemon with coffee today?" Sakura suggested.

"Are you sure?" Sasuke gave her a skeptical look.

"Yep," she chirped back with a smile.

Sasuke had also unconsciously showed up daily at midmorning to take over counter duty. Thus, picking up the little things about Sakura, bits and pieces of information that she'd surrendered. Sakura was a girl of eighteen, with a bubbly, cheerful, passionate personality; and homeschooled, which explain how she could be in the shop at that odd hour every day. She liked reading and listens to such a wide range of music she could be a walking musical library, too bad she couldn't sing, not that he'd tell her that. She tends to be really forgetful, and almost never remembers to bring along her cellphone. She had a thing for sweaters and hoodies, what figure she hid beneath her clothes would probably forever be a mystery. Yet from her slightly caved in cheeks, she clearly couldn't be that heavy.

Suigetsu often teased Sasuke about liking her, Sasuke never bent to it, but never denied it either. _What's not to like?_ he often thought to himself.

"If you get a stomachache, better not blame me. You're bringing this onto yourself," Sasuke chastised her.

"Meh, live a little won't ya. If it hurts, at least you know you're alive to feel it," she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Just saying," he rolled his eyes, "what is with you and lemons anyway?

"Well, there's this saying that when life – "

"Really? Lemons all this time just because there's a saying that says when life gives you lemons?"

"Hey, don't judge. Don't you think how amazing it is that the saying is open ended. I mean seriously, what _can_ you do when life gives you lemons? Screw metaphors, let's do the real thing!"

"Maybe I should stop giving you drinks on the house. Pft, when life gives you lemons," he snickered.

She pouted.

xxx

It's been a little over a year. Sakura had always came in without fail. It was an unspoken agreement between Sasuke and Sakura, that both would show up. Get her whatever weird drink she wanted and plopped a slice of lemon in it.

But that one day, she didn't show up.

No warning before, no message, nothing. She just didn't come. Sasuke thought it was weird, something felt off, but shrugged it off and resumed his duty as per usual, assuming she was probably busy or that something came up last minute.

xxx

The next day, around midmorning, the usual time Sakura would show up. A middle-aged couple came in, huddled together and came up to the counter.

"Hi, are you Sasuke?" the man asked.

"Yeah, that's me," Sasuke greeted.

The woman looked him in the eye and said, "We're Sakura's parents… Sakura, Sakura she – " she broke into a sob.

The man hugged his wife tighter, "Our daughter, she passed away last night. She wanted us to give you something, " he handed Sasuke a box that looked like it could fit a baseball.

"We would also like to thank you, we know Sakura probably gave you quite some trouble for coming here daily with her unreasonable requests. She told us about you, we've heard quite a bit. So, thank you. Thank you for taking care of her," the man bowed his head.

Sasuke was surprised, was an understatement. He stood shocked still as he heard the man said something brief about Sakura having a terminal disease, tumor or something, he couldn't comprehend. Sakura? Dead? He didn't, no, couldn't accept it.

How can he only be learning of this now? She was sick the whole time and he didn't know? Didn't notice? She didn't looked it, always cheerful, always happy about the smallest things.

He continued to stand there as the couple left, thanking him one more time and promising to stay in contact.

He looked down at the box in his hand and opened the lid.

In it, Sasuke found one complete perfect looking lemon, by the weight of it, it was probably an ornament for decoration. He took it out and underneath he found a note, written in girly writing

_When life gives you lemons, you take it, use it, and return it as memories, something that are worth so much more._

_Thank you, Sasuke-kun._

_Sorry for telling you this late._

xxx

Now, years later, that lemon had a place on the counter.

And a lemon sliced beverage is a special, most of the time on the house, listed in the menu, in memory of Sakura, along with her short story of memories for a short life worth living.

* * *

A/N: Yay for day 2! its longer this time, but kinda OOC, hope you enjoyed it!


	3. snake

Title: snake

Summary: where Sakura is afraid of snakes, and Sasuke takes advantage of it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Prompt: phobia

Rating: T

* * *

"I am _not_ afraid of your bloody snakes!" Sakura yelled and gritted her teeth, "I just _really don't like them."_

"Don't be such a crybaby and just admit it," Sasuke smirked, amused.

"I did. I admitted that I _really don't like snakes_. And _oh shit keep it the hell away from me I'm warning you Sasuke-kun keep you bloody snake far far away from me._" Sakura shrieked as Sasuke summoned a snake right before them.

"But I thought you weren't afraid of them, Sa-ku-ra,"

"I'm not, but it makes me really uncomfortable," Sakura grimaced while trying to inch away from it.

"Hn, whatever you say," the snake glided to her feet.

"Sasuke-kun, please I'm begging you, just get it away from me!"

"Then say it,"

"Say what?!"

"You know what,"

"No!"

"What was that? You want to play with it?" Sasuke raised an amused eyebrow at her.

"No! Sasuke-kun, I'm serious, please just get it away from me!"

"You know what to do,"

"You're playing dirty!"

"You were the one who said you weren't afraid of snakes," Sasuke shrugged.

Sakura gaped at him, she didn't realized the snake was already winding up her leg.

"Oh look, it likes you," Sasuke stated.

Sakura looked down. Froze. And screamed.

"Fine! Fine! You win! Yes! Okay! Announce it to the world for all I care! And yes I'm bloody afraid of snakes! Happy now?! So get that thing away from me!"

"Aa."

The snake disappeared with a poof.

"Hn. About time," Sasuke said, "you know we can't hide our engagement forever right?"

* * *

A/N: Day 3 done with a much lighter tone, which is pretty ironic because I've been in a bad mood all day. It's much shorter than the previous two, but I hope anyone reading this likes it!


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